Gas compressing plant



B. R. PLANCHE GAS COMPRESSING ILANT June 6, 1944.

Filed Jan. 27, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 NMF PL ANC/#1 diorney.

Patented June 6, 1944 GAS COMPRESSING PLANT Benjamin Reny Planche, Villefranche-sur-Saone,

France; vested'in the Alien Property Custodan Application January 27, 1942, serial No. 428,380 Y InV France December 16, 1940 2 Claims. (Cl. 230-183) This invention has reference to plants for com- -pressing gasunde'r a high pressure and has for its primary object tQ P1'9Vide a plant-of this kind particularly utilisable for relling with gas such as lighting gas` compressed under suitable pressure steel bottles or tubes such as are employed either stationarily or for such uses as on board automotive vehicles for feeding internal combustion engines. Y

Another object of the inventionis to provide an improved gas compressing plant by means of which steel bottle refilling may be completed within a few hours by an entirely automatic process carried out verygradually and requiring a minimum of supervision and labor. Y

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved gas compressing plant made up of a single or multiple low pressure unit and a single or multiple high pressure unit, said units being absolutely tight and mutally interconnected, the arrangement of the compression producing members being such as to provide slow operation and small delivery.

Another object still of the invention is to provide an improved gas compressing plant including fluid cooling means for the operative or movable parts performing the drive between a prime mover such as an electric motor andthe low pressure and high pressure pistons, and Vfurther fluid cooling means for the outer surfaces of the stationary cylinder units in which said pistons are respectively moved responsiveto rotation of said motor in periodically reversed directions.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved gas compressing plant or nstallation wherein cooling of thek cylinder and piston units is assisted by those members such as rings and gasket-like leather cups ensuring proper iluid tightness.

With these and such other objects in View as will incidentally appear hereafter, the invention comprises the novel construction and combination of parts that Wil-l be now described with referenceto the accompanying diagrammatic drawings exemplifying a suitable constructional `form and a variation and forming a part of the present disclosure. f

In the drawings- Figure 1 is an elevational view with many parts in section showing the compressing plant in its entirety, certain detailsbeing omitted for the sake of clearness. A

Figure 2 is a detail sectional view drawn on a larger scale showing the low pressure piston and the associatedcylinder end.

Figure 3 is a detail sectional view also drawn on a larger scale and showing the high pressure piston with the associated cylinder end.

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic simplied vieW showing a modified arrangement in which the through a delivery pipe Ila.

operation takes place hydraulically instead of mechanically.

Like reference characters designate like Vparts throughout theseveral views.

The frame of the compressing plant shown on the drawings comprises atop bracket I on which is supported an electric motor?. of suitable power and characteristics which through a belt 2a, a pulley 2b and an intermediate shaft 2c drives a gear 6 fast upon said shaft and meshing with cog teeth on a flange ,3a iormedintegral with an elongated nut 3 which is so connected lengthwise to the adjacent frame parts as to be held thereby against longitudinal displacement.

Inside the nut 3 Whose internal screw` thread may have any suitable pitch is engaged a horizontally extending screw-threaded spindle 4 adapted to be slowly shifted as the nut rotates. Said spindle is held against rotation bysplining keys or feathers 5 wedged in the adjacent frame parts and slidably received in longitudinal grooves or keyways 'I formed in said spindle 4. Owing to this arrangement, `and as will be readily understood, when the motor 2'rotates in the one or the other direction responsive to the operation of a reversing switch as will be described hereafter, the splined screw-threaded spindle 4 is4 longitudinally moved either to the right or to the left at the proper slow speed which is required for conveniently performing adequate operation of the compressing plant. y

The ends of thescrew-threaded spindle 4 are provided respectively with a low pressure piston 3 and a high pressure piston 9. Y, Said pistons are housed for longitudinal motion in internally machined steel` tubes or sleeves I0, IiI which form the compression cylinders. The cylinder lI0 corresponds to the low pressure stage,` while the cylinder I I which is of much smaller cross sectional area corresponds to high pressure stage. -Said sleeves or cylinders I (l,A .I Il are tightly closed.- at their outermost extremities by end plates I2, I3 respectively. The end plate I2 of the-low pressure compressor (Fig. 2) is provided with a springurged suction valve I4 and witha spring-urged deliveryvalve I5 controlling the outlet to a 10W pressure delivery pipe |5a. 'The valve- I4 similarly controls the inlet through a suctionpipe` I4, The end plate I3 of the highlpressurecompressor (Fig. 3) is provided likewise with a high pressure suction spring-urged valve I6 controlling the `inlet through a suction pipe Iiia andwith ahigh pressure delivery pipe Il controlling the outflow Thev fluidV circulation takes place as depicted by they arrows.

The low pressure' delivery pipe ISB and, high pressure suction pipe I6a are'connected-,tov an intermediate tank 40 which may be of any known form and which thus provides inter-communica-A tion between the cylinders I0, I I.

the plant are cooled either by a mass of water 2,25*

enclosed in an elongated vat or secondary con- N tainer 22 supported by uprights 22b as shownin Fig. 1 or, alternatively, by strong ventilatingmeans (not shown) whichmay be of any conventional construction.

It will be understood that at each reciprocating motion of the spindle 4 the' oil is` driven out of the piston chamber of the cylinder |10 or Il and iiows back into .the central or primary container 2 v|,whence it is introduced into the opposite pis- "ton chamber of 'the other cylinder, and ,so forth, thereby ensuring acontinuous oil stirring and circulating 'action which facilitates heat Vexhangeand cooling'.

" Owing to this arrangement and to proper use fof well cooled gasket-like leather cups as hereinafter described, it becomes possible to give the "pistons-proper fluid ltightness which, in cooperathenl common to all cylinders.

tiorrwith the provision vof the tight suction and `delivery valves, ensures the proper drawing in of very small quantities of fluid at a time and their Qcorrect deliveries under suitable building up pressure. f v 1 The arrangement of4 v the gasket-like leather cups is advantageously as follows in order to pro- 'tectV themfrom undue heatingand the consequent Vdamage which might ensue therefrom: j'- vAs shown in Fig. 2, the low pressure piston 8 is lmade-hollow so that the oil pool in which the fmovablefparts of the mechanism are immersed fmay adequately cool it from within. Moreover, the piston 8 is provided at the front end of its skirt with-a plurality of -heat exchanging rings l`23, two of which are provided by way of example in the constructional form shown.

' "Asjthefhigh pressure piston 9 (shown sepa- 'rately in Fig'. 3) cannot be made hollow as otherlwise its recesses would not be sufficient toenable the heated oil to flow away, said piston is provided with a larger number of heat exchanging rings such as 24. In the constructional embodilment shown, siii of these rings124 are provided.

lMore`over,the rod'of said piston has a cross sectional sizey matching that ofthe cylinder bore cooling owing'to conductiveness. z

` so asflto assist fi'A's a 'meansof safety, two or moreleather cups "such as 25 may be arranged one after the other in thev direction in which pressure exerts itself. -Moreoven on both pistons, for low and for high -pre'ssure operation respectively, an additional leather cup 26 is so arranged as to extend in the opposite direction, thereby constituting an oiltight gasket. y

-Theleather cups fitted on the skirt of thelow lpressure piston 8 shown in Fig. 2 form an integral `body having-asplayed outline and comprise a common inner retaining flange 25,a clamped home .between an inner collar 8a on the piston skirt and la counter-elbowed keeper ring 8b, bolts 36 ,being engaged through coincident holes in said collar andring... i. u l,

The reciprocatory motion is obtained as shown dn the drawings by reversing the current feed to the electricmotor 2. To that effecta nut member 21 splined on a rod 28 so as tojhold against I rotation: is associatedV with a screw-threaded rod `29 with La view to following the movements of the Cal `port having a check valve,

low pressure piston 8. At the end of its stroke said nut member 21 operates either of a pair of oppositely disposed contact studs 30 which are so wired in a conventional way (not shown) as Each cylinder unit may be duplicated or multiplied so as to form a composite assembly whose cylinders may be juxtaposed side by side, the reversing and reciprocating mechanism being This modified arrangement will be readily understood by anyone skilled in the art and'does not require special illustration. The expression cylinder unitY used in the `claims will be meant vto also involve this constructional modificationgA Control of the operationmay be performed either mechanically as in the above described constructional example or hydraulically. Where the cylinders would be arranged vertically instead of being mounted horizontally, the'pistons may be replaced by a mass of liquid so enclosed in a container as to alternately rise and sink therein under the'pushing stress exerted by a plunger or like actuator. This constructional modification `is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 4

wherein 3l designates the plunger adapted to move upwardly or downwardly in one upright leg 34 of a U-shaped liquid container whose other upright leg 35 is provided on its side wall with a suction valve 32 and at its top end with a gas delivery valve 33. In this constructional modication, the plant may also comprise one or several pressure stages.

Acylinder adapted to; draw fluid into the cylinder through the inlet port and drive fluidfromthe cylinder through the'outletport, a reciprocable member on which both pistons aref mounted, means toreciprocate said member, anda liquid container soconnected with each of said cylinders at the, end remote from the inlet and outlet ports that the pistons draw liquid from, said container into said cylinders and evacuate the liquid from said cylinders into said container.

2. In a compressor, the combination Iof a pair of pressure cylinders; a uid container: disposed Vbetweensaid cylinders and communicating therewith; a piston in each cylinder; means for r'eciprocating said pistons, disposed in said container;

and an inlet port and an outlet port in the end of each cylinder remote from said container, each the parts being so related that each piston draws fluid into its c'ylin der through the inlet port and evacuates vfluid from the cylinder into -the container,-on one stroke of its reciprocation, and-compressesthe fluid in the cylinder, ejects it through theontlet port, and drawsfluid from the-containerinto the cylinder, on the otherl stroke oflitsreciprocation.

; BENJM'N RN PLCHE 

